The present invention relates to computer-implemented transport of electronic information objects. More specifically it relates to information transport software which can be used for transporting information objects between a remote server and any one of multiple, uncoordinated intelligent computer workstations. Still more particularly, it provides a computer-implemented software component that can be used to facilitate the distribution of information objects from a remote source to a large number of customers or subscribers.
Electronic publication is an exploding industry in which thousands of new products including magazines and periodicals, software applications and utilities, video games, business, legal and financial information and databases, encyclopedias and dictionaries are purchased by millions of customers. Commonly, such information products are replicated in computer-readable form on magnetic or optical storage diskettes and are box-packaged with printed manuals for distribution to retail stores and direct mail sales. These marketing practices are relatively expensive and involve a significant time lag of at least days or weeks to get a product into a consumer""s hands once it is created.
Such costs and delays are generally acceptable for original, high value products such as collections of publications or software application, of which some examples are NEWSWEEK(copyright) Interactive CD-ROM, or disks, which provides a searchable audio-visual library of issues of NEWSWEEK magazine and CINEMANIA(copyright) CD-ROM which provides reviews and other information on newly released films. For time-sensitive, low-value updates, for example, the latest issue of Newsweek or last week""s movie reviews, distribution in stored form, on physical media, is slow and the cost may exceed the value of the information in the product.
Thus, electronic transfer from a central computer server to a subscriber""s computer over common carriers or wide area networks is an attractive proposition. Similar considerations apply to the distribution of software program updates, although cost and frequency of issue are not such serious constraints. A problem faced in both situations is that of incorporating the received material with the original material so that a fully integrated publication, information database or software program is obtained by the user.
Another class of electronically distributed information product comprises home shopping catalogues of mail order products distributed on optical or other digital data storage disks which may contain text, sound and images from printed catalogues or uniquely created material, for example software application demos. To applicant""s knowledge and belief, available products lack any computer order placement capability, requiring orders to be placed by voice call.
Communication between remote computers, not directly interconnected by umbilical cable or a wired network, is enabled by a wide range of hardware devices and software drivers, utilities, applications and application modules. Telephone modems that couple a computer with the telephone network are familiar devices. RF modems that couple computers into wireless networks are less familiar but are beginning to appear in consumer devices known broadly as personal information communicators (PIC""s) of which personal digital assistants (PDA""s) such as Apple Corp.""s NEWTON(copyright) product are a first generation. New kinds of digital communications devices can be expected to emerge as digital technology replaces analog transmission.
General-purpose, online, modem-accessed, electronic information services, such as PRODIGY, COMPUSERVE and AMERICA ONLINE (trademarks), and some Internet services, provide wide access to timely information products from a central server, but are limited and complex. They provide no means for the integration of downloaded information with information products offered on disk or CD, and provide only rudimentary facilities for local viewing and search of downloaded files.
Such online information services provide their own user interface which is generally unlike that of a disk or CD-based information product, and can be customized very little, if at all, by a publisher using the service for product distribution.
Online services are oriented to extended online sessions which require complex user interaction to navigate and find desired information objects. Initial setup and use is rendered complex by requirements related to extended session use of data networks and the frequent need to navigate across the network, and through massive data collections, to locate desired data items. General-purpose online information services do not provide a suitable medium for electronic information publishers to distribute updates, and the like, because of limited interface flexibility, because a publisher cannot expect all their customer base to be service subscribers, and because of cost and payment difficulties. Such services are centered on monolithic processes intended for national use by millions of subscribers which processes are not readily adaptable.
Online service charging mechanisms are also inflexible and inappropriate for most individual information products, requiring monthly subscription fees of $5-10 or more, plus time charges for extended use, which are billed directly to users, after a user sign-up and credit acceptance process. Such cost mechanisms are too expensive and too complex for distribution of many products such as magazine and other low cost update products. They do not presently permit a publisher to build an access fee into a purchase price or a product subscription.
Recent press announcements from corporations such as ATandT, Lotus, Microsoft and MCI describe plans for new online services providing what are called xe2x80x9cgroupwarexe2x80x9d services to offer rich electronic mail and group collaboration functions, primarily for business organizations. Although offering multiple electronic object transport operations such services are believed to have complex setup procedures and software requirements and complex message routing features and protocols, and to lack interface flexibility. Accordingly, they are not suitable for mass distribution of low cost electronic information update products and cannot achieve the objectives of the invention.
Communications Products
Many software products exist that enable one computer to communicate with another over a remote link such as a telephone cable or the air waves, but none enables a vendor substantially to automate common carrier mass distribution of an electronic information product to a customer base employing multiple heterogenous systems with indeterminate hardware and software configurations. Two examples of popular such software products are Datastorm Technologies, Inc.""s PROCOMM (trademark) and CENTRAL POINT COMMUTE (trademark) from Central Point Software, Inc. which are commonly used to provide a variety of functions, including file transfers between, interactive sessions from, host-mode services from, and remote computer management of, modem-equipped personal computers wired into the telephone network.
Counterpoint Publishing""s Federal Register Publications
Counterpoint Publishing, (Cambridge Mass.) in brochures available to applicant in November 1993 offered electronic information products entitled xe2x80x9cDaily Federal Registerxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cCD Federal Registerxe2x80x9d. xe2x80x9cDaily Federal Registerxe2x80x9d includes communications software and a high-speed modem. Apparently, the communications software is a standard general purpose communications package with dialing scripts that are customized to the needs of the Federal Register products. Accordingly, the cost of a communications package license which may be as high as about $100 at retail must be included with in the product cost. Also, Counterpoint Publishing avoids the difficulties of supporting various modems by providing its own own standard modem, with the product, building in a cost (about $100-200) which renders this approach quite unsuitable for mass-market distribution of low cost electronic information update products. The resulting product is not seamless either in its appearance or its operation because the communications software is separately invoked and used, and has its own disparate look and feel to the user.
The xe2x80x9cCD Federal Registerxe2x80x9d provides the Federal Register on CD-ROM at weekly intervals for $1,950.00 and CD-ROM disks are shipped to customers as they become available. Back issues are $125 each. Updates are provided by shipping a disk. The Federal Register is a high-value product intended for specialist, business, academic and governmental users. Distribution of updates on CD-ROM, as utilized by Counterpoint Publishing, is not a suitable method for lower value products such as a weekly news magazine, because of the associated costs. Shipping delays are a further drawback.
While the two product xe2x80x9cCD Federal Registerxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cDaily Federal Registerxe2x80x9d might be used together, at an additive cost, to provide a combination of archives on CD-ROM plus daily updates obtained and stored until replaced by a new CD-ROM, based on information available to the present inventor it appears that the two products must be used separately. Thus they must apparently be viewed, searched, and managed as two or more separate collections, requiring multiple steps to perform a complete search across both collections, and requiring manual management and purging of the current collection on hard disk by the user.
Xcellenet""s xe2x80x9cREMOTEWARExe2x80x9d(copyright)
Xcellenet Inc. in product brochures copyrighted 1992 and a price list dated Aug. 16, 1993, for a xe2x80x9cREMOTEWARExe2x80x9d(copyright) product line, offers a range of REMOTEWARE(copyright) software-only products providing electronic information distribution to and from remote nodes of a proprietary REMOTEWARE(copyright) computer network intended for use within an organized, corporate or institutional data processing or management information system. The system is primarily server directed, rather than user initiated and requires an expensive program (priced at $220.00) to run at the user""s node whereas the present invention addresses consumer uses which will support costs of no more than a few dollars per node.
Further, REMOTEWARE(copyright) is primarily intended to be used with other REMOTEWARE(copyright) products at the node which other products provide a range of user interface and data management functions, at significant additional cost, each with their own separate user interface presenting a standard REMOTEWARE(copyright) look and feel. In addition, the nodes require a sophisticated central support and operations function to be provided, which may be difficult for an electronic information publisher to accomplish and add unacceptable expense.
REMOTEWARE(copyright) is overly elaborate to serve the simpler objectives of the present invention. Designed for the demanding needs of enterprise-wide data processing communications, the client or node package provides many functions such as background operation, ability to receive calls from the server at any time, ability to work under control of the central server to survey and update system software and files and an ability to support interactive sessions, which abilities are not needed to carry out the simpler information transport operations desired by the present invention. Such capabilities may be desirable in an enterprise MIS environment, but are not appropriate to a consumer or open commercial environment, and bring the drawbacks of complexity, cost, and program size, which may put undesirable operational constraints on the user (and perhaps even compromise the user""s privacy). REMOTEWARE(copyright) is too costly and complex for mass distribution of updates to periodicals, cannot be shipped invisibly with an electronic information product and requires specialized server software and operations support that would challenge all but the largest and most technically sophisticated publishers. Accordingly, REMOTEWARE(copyright) is unsuitable for widespread use as an economical means of distributing updates for a variety of electronic information products.
Although it has wider applications, a significant problem addressed by the invention is the problem of economically distributing updates of electronic information products to a wide customer base that may number tens or hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of consumers. At the date of this invention, such a customer base will normally include an extensive variety of computers, operating systems and communications devices, if the latter are present, all of which may have their own protocols and configuration requirements.
While an electronic information product vendor might consider licensing or purchasing an existing commercial communications product for distribution with their publication product to enable remote, diskless updating, the high cost of such a solution would generally be unacceptable because a communication package includes a broad range of functionalities not required for the vendor""s particular purpose, for example, remote keyboarding. Significantly, a commercial communications package is not susceptible to customization of its user interface and may have its own configuration requirements and installation requirements, with regard to directories, device drivers and the like, which are incompatible with other vendor or user requirements or are simply a nuisance to the user. Thus, a commercial communications product in addition to its cost, cannot be satisfactorily integrated with an information product.
There is accordingly a need for computer-implementable information transport software to enable simple, economical and prompt mass distribution of electronic information products.
This invention solves a problem. It solves the problem of enabling simple, economical and prompt mass distribution of electronic information products.
The invention solves this problem by providing a computer-implemented information transport software module usable with any of multiple electronic information products for mass distribution of electronic information objects to users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications-equipped computer stations. The information transport software module is readily customized to an individual information product to have a user interface in said information product for activation of automated transport of an information object between a re mote object source and a users computer station. The information transport module contains user communications protocols specifying user station functions of the automated object transport and the object source is supplied with source communications protocols specifying source functions of the automated object transport. The source communications protocol is co-operative with the user communications protocol and knows the characteristics of the user communications protocol, so as to be able to effect the information object transport in unattended mode after initiation.
Preferably, for economy and simplicity, the information transport component is supplied for incorporation in an information product as a free-standing embeddable component comprising only such functionality as is required for the aforesaid information object transport operation as that operation is described above and as further elaborated herein. In a preferred embodiment, by limiting available functionality to predetermined transport operations , for example to information object transport between the user""s address and one or more pre-specified remote addresses, or to transport of a pre-specified information object or objects, or by making both such limitations, a lean and efficient information transporter product can be provided. This enables an information product vendor to supply an automated, or unattended, update or other information transport facility to a mass market of computer users without the complexity and expense of proprietary network or communications software packages, or of the vendor developing their own transport software.
In a local area network, users communicating across a common medium such as ETHERNET (trademark), or TOKEN RING (trademark) can enjoy the relatively expensive benefits of coordination of traffic between users, and to and from network services, which benefits are provided by a network operating system such as LANTASTIC (trademark, Artisoft Corp.) or NETWARE (trademark, Novell, Inc.). In contrast, a mass market of computer users lacks coordinating means for the facilitation of remote communications between the users and a would-be provider of services to those users. The inventive information transport component, or transporter, efficiently fills that need. While the invention might be implemented for transport across a local area network, such use would probably be incidental to the provision of other services and may not be needed having regard to the sophisticated functions usually provided by relatively much more expensive local area network communication systems.
Typical communications equipment comprises a modem, but other cards and devices enabling remote communication between computers may be used, such as devices or means permitting communication in a digital rather than analog realm, for example, ISDN or ATM interfaces when they become commercially viable.
Preferably, the user communications protocols specify parameters such as a source address, which may be a common carrier address, such as a telephone number, and object parameters such as file name or names, file size, location content and format are specified, as appropriate, in either the user communications protocols or the source communications protocols, or both. Such object specification can be listed in an object manifest stored at the user""s station, which preferably, for better control of the transport operation, is sent to the remote object source as a verifier.
By pre-specifying the desired transport functions to both ends of the transport operation, the user and the object source, a simplified, easy-to-use, automated transport operation which conveys an information object in unattended mode, after initiation, can be provided to any user.
The inventive information transport module provides an information product vendor with simplicity, modularity and generality enabling information fetch operations to be easily executed by novice users, and permitting inclusion in a wide range of information products with a minimum of customization. The invention is accordingly most suitable for electronic publishers to employ to enable their customers easily to update information products such, for example, as periodical collections, patent collections or software furnished on optical, magnetic or other storage devices.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the information object is pre-identified and integratable with the information product to which the transport module is customized to provide an augmented information product and the information transport component comprises:
a) a fetcher module configured to fetch said pre-identified object from said object source employing a pre-specified common carrier address stored in said fetcher module;
b) a communications manager to establish and manage connection to said object source under control of said fetcher module and with the assistance of said user and source communications protocols; and
c) a fetched object integrator to locate a fetched object in a preset file area accessible to and known to said containing information product;
wherein said object pre-identification, said common carrier address and said preset file area specifications are stored in said software component, whereby a workstation user of said information product can automatically effect transport and integration of a pre-identified object from said object source to create an augmented information product at said workstation.
In this embodiment, any user can, easily and with varying degrees of automaticity, up to complete automation after initiation of transport or upon arrival of a scheduled transport time, obtain an update object and smoothly integrate it with an original product or product shell.
In a highly automated embodiment a containing information product, complete with transporter, is pre-coded with an update, reporting, or other schedule and, referencing the user""s system clock, prompts the user for initiation of a transport operation at a scheduled date after distribution of the containing product, or fetches a schedule. If the user""s system is shut down when the pre-scheduled date arrives, such prompt may be made at the first system boot or product use after that date.
The invention provides a closed-ended information transport operation between an information object source and any subscribing user, with no special commands or menu selections, which functions efficiently and, within the general parameters of an operating system""s required environment, operates independently of the user""s system configuration. Information transport operations are carried out automatically between communications modules that know what to expect from each other, avoiding difficulties arising from open-ended communications with a wide variety of users employing a diversity of heterogenous systems.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method of distributing predetermined electronic information objects from a remote object source to users of a diversity of uncoordinated modem-equipped computer stations, said method comprising:
a) supplying said users with an information transport module containing user communications protocols specifying user station functions of an automated object transport operation; and
b) supplying said remote object source with a source information object and source communications protocols specifying source functions of the automated object transport operation, said source communications protocol being co-operative with the user communications protocol to effect said information object transport operation;
whereby said transport operation can proceed automatically after initiation at said user""s station.
The inventive distribution software module and the original information product are linked together to interact seamlessly. It is possible for transport of the update to proceed in a high level format facilitating integration of the update object with the original product, and the invention also provides methods and software for effecting such integration.
A broad objective of the invention which can be fulfilled by the methods and products disclosed herein is to allow a computer user to fetch and use an information product update, or even an original information product for which they have previously received a transporter kit, with a minimum of effort, and preferably with the impression that the fetch function is an integral capability of the information product itself, rather than being executed by a separate or separable component.
Another objective is to enable information transport to be easily effected across any of a selection of media or carriers, desired by the containing information product supplier. To this end the information transport component can provide protocol selection means for selecting media for real time communication between said user and said remote object source employing a selection from a set of open-ended network technologies and network providers, said communication means being selectable without substantive change to said containing information product.
In preferred embodiments, after setup of a containing information product and a simple menu-selection activation of a transport operation to occur immediately or at a subsequent date, or time, and subject to the occurrence of error conditions, the information transport component effects the transport operation in an unattended manner, or without user intervention, through the steps of modem activation, dialing, network transit, handshaking with the object source, file specification, file importation, termination of the call and return of control to the containing product.
Preferably, additional transport-related steps such as sending back verification of receipt of the fetched file to the object source, inspection of the fetched object and comparison with a pre-existing manifest for verification of object parameters, and any necessary unpacking and decompression are effected automatically, in an unattended manner without user intervention. For seamless use of the object, it is also preferred that application file specifications, any necessary location or relocation of an object file or files, and any reindexing, index creation or other product integration function that is required to enable the user to utilize the fetched object harmoniously with the original information product, be performed automatically in unattended manner without user intervention, or with minimal user confirmation that one or more steps of the procedure should be executed.
Should errors be detected, if critical, they are reported to the user, and possibly also to the object source. If a detected error is potentially recoverable, the novel information transport component preferably takes action, without seeking user confirmation (although in some embodiments confirmation could be requested), to correct the error, for example by redialling a phone call a specified number of times, or by re-running an object fetch operation. Should a new fetch object still fail to meet manifest specifications, deviations may be reported back to the object source with the user being alerted and, possibly recommended to make a phone call.
Preferably also, the information transport component or xe2x80x9ctransporterxe2x80x9d performs a containerized, standard transport operation, which is transparent to any high-level formatting of the transported information object, and standard in the sense that the transport operation can be essentially repeated for a wide variety of different information objects.
Preferred embodiments of the information transport component can pack or unpack, compress or decompress, and send to or fetch files from specified locations. The transporter allows the containing information product to be set up automatically to effect high-level integration of indexes and navigational structures by letting the containing product have control when needed to import or export (and encrypt or decrypt) objects.
Preferably, the transporter has no direct effect on the content of the data object. Such transparency is advantageous in avoiding interdependency between the transporter and possible use of novel data structures, encryption or copy-control methods, or the like, by the containing product. For example the transporter need not know (and possibly jeopardize) any encryption technique.
In preferred embodiments of the invention, the module is self configuring and has the ability to scan the user""s system, and preferably identifies the user""s modem, or other system components or configuration software, and automatically set protocols such as the baud rate, bits parity and the like. Relevant auto-configuring capabilities and software that may be employed in practicing the invention are offered or promised by Intel Corporation in a brochure entitled xe2x80x9cIntel Technology Briefing: Plug and Playxe2x80x9d copyrighted 1994, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference thereto.
Preferably, the novel electronic information transporter is seamlessly embedded in the containing product so that an end user is unaware that the transporter can exist separately from the containing product. However, it is a valuable feature of the invention that the transporter be separable from the containing product to be usable with other containing products.
New or improved electronic information products are made possible by the novel information transporter disclosed herein, for example, CD-ROM-based products updated from online services, updatable periodical magazine collections, catalog-based computer shopping with order entry and optionally, order confirmation.
Recently Contemplated CD-ROM Products Updatable From Online Services
A CD-ROM-based product with online service updatability called xe2x80x9cMICROSOFT Complete Baseballxe2x80x9d (MICROSOFT is a trademark) was announced by Microsoft Corporation apparently on Mar. 1, 1994, with a Jun. 15, 1994 availability date. A product brochure received by the present inventor on April 26 describes a multimedia history of baseball which can be updated with daily scores from an online service, by modem. Nothing in the sales materials suggests any separable information transport components marketable for use with other information products.
In late April 1994, CompuServe(copyright) (trademark) online information service announced plans for a CD-ROM information product to be used in conjunction with its online service. The CompuServe(copyright) CD-ROM information product online service is usable only with that service, and requires users of its online component to be CompuServe(copyright) member/subscribers, on terms such as described above, which terms restrict the CD-ROM product""s marketability. The CD-ROM content and user interface is limited to that provided by CompuServe(copyright). Accordingly, such a dedicated CD-ROM service is not a satisfactory solution to independent publishers looking for economical update means, because they will be limited to whatever user interface and data management flexibility the online vendor may provide which will substantially restrict any creative look-and-feel identity the publisher may have provided in their own product. Thus the CD-ROM product is described by CompuServe(copyright) in the statement: xe2x80x9cIt is, essentially, a new window on CompuServe . . . xe2x80x9d This product description does not suggest an ability to obtain updated online information for integrated local, offline use with an original information product stored on the CD-ROM, as is provided by the present invention.
In addition to CD-ROM-based products, various new information distribution methods and services are made possible by embodiments of the present invention. The object source can be a remote server equipped with a cooperative communications module closely molded to work effortlessly with the information transporter for distributing objects to a wide base of users. Such a remote server can be linked to a vendor or gatewayed to other information object sources or electronic publishers, and exploit its smooth and efficient information transport capabilities to act as a distribution point for such vendors, sources or publishers.
Thus, the invention further comprises such a special-purpose server designed for use with the novel information transporter and the special-purpose server can be established as a distribution service for publishers who incorporate the information transporter in their products. The invention also provides a method of operating a server to provide such a software service and server-enabling software.